The Life Cycle Of a Sea Turtle

I.A.L.T inform my audience about sea turtles using explanation text.

Turtles have been around since the late Jurassic period, approximately 150 million years ago. They are reptiles that go by the scientific name of Chealioldea. There are seven different species of sea turtles and six which are critically endangered. Sea turtles start in an egg then grow into young turtles followed by adulthood. Every year they come together to breed.

To lay her eggs the female turtle will climb onto a beach where she will dig a hole of sand and deposit 50-200 leathery ping pong ball sized eggs. Approximately 20% of these will never hatch. Once hatched the surviving turtles, each small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, squirm to the surface.They will then make a desperate dash for the sea. Along the the way they will come across predators such as raccoons, gulls and crabs. Which will claim about 50% of those that make it to the sand.

Those lucky enough to have made it to the water will frantically swim forward to look for a piece of floating debris, in this stage 50% of those that had reached the surf will be killed because of unfortunate weathers, currents or predators. Over time those baby turtles will increase in size.

Once the turtles have reached adulthood their predators change from gulls and smaller creatures to sharks, tigers, bulls, whites and killer whales. Only 10% of those that started on a beach many years ago less than 10% remain. But with the added pressure of pollution, nets and poaching the chances of a sea turtle’s survival drop to approximately 1% or less. Once a turtle has reached around 20 years of age they will be ready to continue to cycle and breed.